Heroes of Cosplay Episode 6 Review

September 20th, 2013 Yunie

The final episode of SyFy’s “Heroes of Cosplay” aired Tuesday night, though I watched it on Wednesday after a struggle with Comcast. I watched the episode in its entirety, and well… I have quite a lot to say this time around. There were some highlights in this episode, but primarily, it left a sour taste in my mouth.

The first highlight? Jinyo and Victoria visited Peter Mayhew at Planet Comicon and Jinyo proposed to her. It was sweet, the ring was cute, and it was great to see this at the beginning of the episode because it all goes downhill from here.

Team Atlanta got to the con and started rehearsing, with Riddle getting obviously sick throughout the night. Team Los Angeles arrived and started working on building their pieces. After everyone did a quick check-in, the groups went out to dinner, where Monika was approached about the negative commentary she had given Becky awhile back. Monika ended up crying and apologizing about the situation and realized she needed to watch she said before speaking next time.

The next day, Riddle was infinitely worse with her illness, and while everyone was okay with cancelling things, she wanted to continue. They went to pre-judging, which was uneventful, but caused issues with Yaya because they didn’t get touchy-feely with the costumes. Becky woke up and realized her eyes had a bad reaction to her contacts that she had left in her eyes for the next day, so she ended up going to the hospital to get them taken care of. She happily returned with her eyes open and the pain lessening, so they got in costume, and headed to pre-judging.

The contest then went off, showing some groups that competed as well, then started setting up for Team Atlanta’s performance. As this was happening, jeers began happening from the audience, followed by a confrontation backstage between Team Los Angeles and another group. It got heated enough to where Becky cried, and then Yaya’s group performed, followed by Team L.A. They announced overall Best in Show, which went to Yaya’s group.

And this is where I rant. A lot. First and foremost, any type of bullying is absolutely unacceptable. The bullying from the crowd, the bullying from other groups, and the bullying from the cosplayers featured on the show which wasn’t shown is absolutely unacceptable. On top of that, the community’s bullying is unacceptable as well. As was SyFy’s by going in and forcing conventions to change everything they do to allow them to film and people to compete. Bullying by entering a contest as a Master craftsman and competing with people who are mixed levels is bullshit. This whole show did nothing but show how bad the community has become with negativity and bullying, and that we as a group need to sit down, and seriously evaluate what we’re doing as a whole. I respect the people on this show for their skills. I do NOT respect the show. And I will never respect bullying on any level, and this stupid show took it to such an extreme that I was thoroughly disgusted by everyone on it, talking about it, and running it. This even includes me, not going to lie. I said some pretty nasty stuff, even if true at points, but words and actions can hurt. That is why bullying needs to stop.

Secondly, SyFy. Stay out of the cosplay community. OUT. You went to cons, burned a lot of bridges, and made people sign things to be able to walk on a stage. Stay out and never come back.

Pro: The proposal and the skits were enjoyable to watch. Also, Monika realizing how negative words can hurt others.

A cosplayer for over a decade now, Yunie is a giant nerd who still pretends she’s cool. She runs several sites on her own, including Engi no Shouzoku! Cosplay, Cosplay Blog with a Brain, and her store, Yunie’s Designs. An avid fan of fellow nerds, Yunie loves attending conventions and dorking around in costumes with all types. Oh, and if there’s shenanigans, even better!